


Make Me Feel Tiny (if it makes you feel tall)

by dls



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Abusive Relationship (past), Alternate Universe - Human, F/M, First Impressions, Friendship, Inspired by Fanfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-22 05:15:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7421407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dls/pseuds/dls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Caroline is really not interested in hearing about Bonnie's "good guy" best friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Make Me Feel Tiny (if it makes you feel tall)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Six Mornings After](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6518716) by [gabrieeella](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gabrieeella/pseuds/gabrieeella). 



> References/Quotes:   
>  Title from "There's Always Someone Cooler Than You" by Ben Folds.

"Stefan is a really good guy."  Bonnie said, as she arranged the pop tart boxes in their pantry.

Caroline rolled her eyes before gently shouldering Bonnie away from the shelves, even after sharing a space for over a year, Bonnie still didn't get the organization system.

"He just got his heart broken by this girl he put on a pedestal…" Bonnie continued as she arranged herself comfortably on their kitchen counter, long jeans-clad legs dangling as she observed Caroline's obsessive yet practical arrangement.

Caroline tensed slightly at the word "pedestal" but was able to disguise it as straining to reach the top shelf, where she planned to hide the instant cheesecake mix Bonnie snuck into their shopping cart.  Her movements shifted to auto-pilot as Bonnie's words faded away as thoughts of the pedestal she was once placed on crept in.

_"You just get me, Care."_

_"You're so loyal, Care. You'd never betray me."_

_"Oh, you're so beautiful, I don't want to share you with anyone."_

_"Wow! That was amazing, you're so sexy you make me wild."_

_"Thank you for placing me first, no one else had ever done that. You're like the perfect girl for me."_

_She was happy, elatedly so, when she first heard those words. She wanted to be that girl for him, years of insecurity screaming in her ear deafened by his praises and awe for her. She was that girl - the perfect, devoted, beautiful, selfless, sex goddess.  It was a high unlike any she'd known, to be seen as perfect and not having to fight for it.  It was addictive in the best way._

_It made sense that she'd defend him against probing questions voiced by her mother and friends (except Matt didn't appreciate her defense of their relationship, of him, because she must have told them something to make them ask those questions). It made sense that she'd buy and wear items of clothing he preferred (except Matt's preferences seemed to change day-to-day and she could never get it right on the first try when she dressed for a date, then to make it worse, her outfit changes made them late). It made sense she'd research Cosmo and google for bedroom tricks so she could keep it adventurous in the bedroom (except Matt saw her attempts to please him in bed as signs of infidelity, pinning her wrists down and snarling hateful accusations into her ear)._

_Suddenly Caroline wasn't the perfect girl anymore, the need to redeem herself was nearly as urgent as her addiction to Matt's (false) praises and as desperate as her fear of Matt's (rightful) anger. The cycle continued, she would mess up and work to make up for it but she'd never quite get it right.  Eventually she had so many faults and mistakes and failures that she couldn't keep them all straight in her mind.  Matt did, at least, and he never hesitated to remind her of her transgressions on an ever-expanding and never-ending list._

_It took longer than Caroline would like to admit, but whatever Matt and she had wasn't love, at least it wasn't love that could survive in the real world. The real world had friends of opposite gender, personal clothing choices, and the ability to say "no" and "stop" and "you're a dick." Caroline liked the real world and she liked the real Caroline Forbes, belonging on no one's pedestal, including her own._

Caroline tuned back in to the end of Bonnie's heartfelt, passionate, and rather invasive character witness of a speech about her best friend, Stefan Salvatore.  

"You'll really like him, Care." Bonnie concluded.

"Whatever." Folding the paper grocery bag neatly to be recycled later, Caroline shrugged.  Whoever he was, Stefan Salvatore already had two strikes against him in her book, and if he happened to like whiny rock music ( _"I think Radiohead really has depth," a younger Caroline once said to her group of dumbfounded friends, parroting Matt's words earlier_ ) then he was out.


End file.
